Florida Equity Firm Drops $42M on Large Retail Asset

The Sterling Organization, a Palm Beach, Florida-based private equity real estate investment firm has acquired the 594,688-square-foot Stones River Mall, one of the largest shopping centers in the Nashville metropolitan area, the company recently announced.

Stones River Mall

The Sterling Organization, a Palm Beach, Florida-based private equity real estate investment firm, acquired the 594,688-square-foot Stones River Mall, one of the largest shopping centers in the Nashville metropolitan area, the company recently announced. Sterling made the acquisition through its Sterling Value Add Partners II, LP institutional fund. According to the Nashville Business Journal, Sterling paid $42 million for the Murfreesboro Mall, which ranks as the ninth largest shopping center in Middle Tennessee. Sterling picked up the asset from entities identified as Aslan III Stones River LLC and Transwestern Stones River LLC by the Daily News Journal.

Located on Old Fort Parkway, in Murfreesboro’s primary retail node, the property has a five-mile catchment area with a population of 115,029 and an average household income of $65,417. The area is expected to experience a 7.57 percent population growth between 2014 and 2019. The average household income in Stone River Mall’s five-mile catchment area is also expected to expand, reaching $68,934 by 2019. 127,000 cars pass the property on a daily basis.

The 594,688-square-foot Stones River Mall is an enclosed regional mall with an outdoor lifestyle component. The property is anchored by Sears, Dillard’s and J.C Penney, while its outparcels are occupied by popular restaurants such as Olive Garden, T.G.I. Fridays and Buffalo Wild Wings. Other mall tenants include Bath & Body Works, Books-A-Million, Aeropostale, Shoe Carnival, Victoria’s Secret, Electronic Express and Hancock Fabrics. Sterling’s recently acquired interest in Stones River consist of 45.3 acres holding 497,691-square-feet of retail space, or about 85 percent of the entire property.

“As a result of a recent major renovation, we intend to leverage the physical condition and high quality finishes of the asset thereby allowing us to focus our capital investment on high return on equity activities as we seek to grow what should be a solid in place cash flow base,” said Brian Kosoy, managing principal, president & CEO of Sterling Organization.